Aren't there any free tools to publish HTML documents and help in the creation of DocBook XML files for the MS Windows Platforms? It appears that DocBook is geared towards the Linux OS only and that sucks. Linux is a great server platform but rather limited as a Desktop OS so we don't use it at this new job (where is spend 80% of my waking hours).

SvenP wrote:
1. Editor
A good editor is XMLMindEditor. It has a simple WYSIWYG Interface. There is a free version that can work with standard DTDs (like DocBook). http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor.

I tried that and it works quite well indeed. The only and major drawback is that it seems to mess up the XML layout and that makes merging differences much more difficult. We're looking into tools like XMLIndent to sort out these issues. Until then, we have agreed to stay away from WYSIWYG editors.

In any case, the DocBook/XML structures that we have used so far are very simple - definately not more complex than HTML code.

B@rt wrote:
I tried that and it works quite well indeed. The only and major drawback is that it seems to mess up the XML layout and that makes merging differences much more difficult. We're looking into tools like XMLIndent to sort out these issues. Until then, we have agreed to stay away from WYSIWYG editors.

I'm very fond of non-wysiwyg editors

I've tried XMLeditor too, and what it saves is not so ugly, if we use it to write single section and not to manage the whole project it can be handy.

B@rt wrote: We're looking into tools like XMLIndent to sort out these issues. Until then, we have agreed to stay away from WYSIWYG editors.
B@rt

XMLIndent doesn't have a Windows version either. I have found a free tool called XMLEditPro that seems pretty simple to use. I tried loading the style guide online but a couple files have parsing errors, especially the appendencies. Matter of fact all the tools I use have a problem with that file. B@rt, why can't we make a blank template ready to be filled in like we did in the days of the Tutor Guide #2 ??

tHe-IcemAn wrote:XMLIndent doesn't have a Windows version either. I have found a free tool called XMLEditPro that seems pretty simple to use. I tried loading the style guide online but a couple files have parsing errors, especially the appendencies. Matter of fact all the tools I use have a problem with that file. B@rt, why can't we make a blank template ready to be filled in like we did in the days of the Tutor Guide #2 ??

I'll see if I can make an online gizmo that runs XMLIndent over your files and returns them to you - should be straightforward I think.

About the XML editing problem: the cause is probably that the editor doesn't have the DocBook/XML DTD loaded. As far as I know the appendices are valid DocBook/XML. Try taking a shot at it with a syntax coloring texteditor such as EditPlus - writing DocBook is really very easy.

B@rt wrote:About the XML editing problem: the cause is probably that the editor doesn't have the DocBook/XML DTD loaded. As far as I know the appendices are valid DocBook/XML. Try taking a shot at it with a syntax coloring texteditor such as EditPlus - writing DocBook is really very easy.

B@rt

I used XMLmind XML editor which does have Doc:Book, the error I get is that you can only have one top level element and there are like 3 or so "appendix" tags in that one file.

tHe-IcemAn wrote:B@rt, why can't we make a blank template ready to be filled in like we did in the days of the Tutor Guide #2 ??

I'll second that, a fill-in-the-blanks template woulb be great for people who don't really want to see the XML tags and stuff.
I'm sure that if I took some time to check the syntax a little bit, it would be very easy to write a script where you could choose between the different textblock type, paste the text in et voila!

Martin

Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans.
- John Lennon

High theory here, but wouldn't it be possible to modify a forum (say phpBB) so it sits on top of a CVS system containing DocBook formatted files? Actually it might be easier in raw PHP . . . and leave the clever stuff to the CVS layer, just a nice web based front end.

If you did that it would be dead easy for people to submit updates, which could then be checked and revised.

If the XML DTD defined not only the correct interpretation of
the tags, but the correct methods for interpretation, like an embedded
parser description language complete with the routines,
then you wouldn't have problems between the parsers that
read the DTD files and have different methods (read bugs) that
keep them from agreeing on interpretations of XML files.

What I'm doing is comparing message formats to object formats,
XML formats don't maintain their own integrity, you do.. HAHAHAHAHAH